Epoxy adhesive

Epoxy glue or epoxy adhesive is glue that contains epoxy resin as the main ingredient. The epoxy is the resin produced by the condensation reaction in which a polyhydric compound and epichlorohydrin are reacted in the presence of alkali. Epoxy adhesive is a two component material, the epoxy resin and the hardener that will crosslink the epoxy to make a dry, hard and strong bond. The hardener is chemical that will react with the epoxy groups, including amines, thiols, hydroxides, and acid groups, but amines are the most common hardeners.

The epoxy glue is a versatile adhesive is widely used for various purposes such as: the building construction, bicycles, sports equipment, boats, decking and even the aircraft construction. Epoxy adhesive can be used to glue the glass, metal, plastic, wood, and iron. It can be made in wide range performance from the clear, transparent, to the opaque performance; it can also be formulated in an elastic or rigid, fast or slow dry. In the wood adhesive, the epoxy is widely used for outdoor furniture, boats, decking or construction. The adhesive has some advantages such as: cure at ambient temperatures, have good gap filling ability, and available to bond with many other substrates. The epoxy glue can be used to produce a bond to the wood as well as for in-place repair of the damaged wood at structural members.
But the fact that the uses of epoxy adhesive in wood adhesives is quite less. It could be caused by two factors, the price is relatively expensive and the unsatisfied bonding result. The study and test carried out to the epoxy adhesive showed high failure compared with other types of glue that is cheaper and easier to be used. Two major factors that contribute to durable wood bonds are less creep and its ability to withstand the tension caused by changes in humidity of the wood.

The more discussion about the epoxy adhesive can be found in the article; Does the epoxy adhesive strong enough?

epoxy for bamboo laminated

The tips to use the epoxy adhesive:

• The epoxy adhesive is more suitable to make the outdoor uses wood product. It is waterproof, and has high resistant to the outdoor weather. It can be used to laminate or assembly the patio furniture, garden furniture, fences, decking, boat and other outdoor wood product. The glue is expensive and considered is not suitable for the indoor furniture, plywood, barecore, m.d.f., particle and other indoor product.

• Select the proper epoxy adhesive according to the project. They are available in many forms: liquid, paste, more elastic or more rigid, longer drying or faster drying, Choose the most suitable formula according to production process and condition. 

• Prepare well the wood. The failure of the wood bonding mostly is caused by the wood problem. The wood moisture content is the main factor, make sure the wood pieces have dry enough and have uniform m.c.

• Make sure we read and follow the instruction according to the adhesive. Read the specification about the time curing, the pressure needed and the mixing ratio of the adhesives.

Veneer conditioner.

Veneer is a wood product that is very similar with the wood panel. Problems of arching, cracking, bending and other problems resulting from the changes of moisture content are also often happened to the veneer. The veneer may be more fragile since it is just a thin sheet then thick wood panels. To help overcome various problems in the veneer, then the finishing materials industry has provide a special material called veneer conditioner.

Veneer conditioner (veneer softener or veneer plasticizer) is a material that is specially designed to soften the veneer to become soft, plastic, and flexible. It is glycerin diluted with water with some other solvent and chemical. Glycerin is a humectant that would keep the veneer at the higher moisture content to keep it to be soft, plastic and elastic. Veneer conditioner serves to straighten the buckled and curled veneer. Veneer if is not stored or handled properly may be curved, uneven or wavy. Directly straighten the hard veneer is risk to crack and damage the veneer sheet Veneer conditioner will help to soften the veneer; after the veneer is plastic and soft then it can be straightened. 

 crotch mahogany veneer panel

The veneer conditioner can also be used to help reduce the problems to the hard and brittle veneer such as: crotch, burl or veneer from hard and brittle wood. The brittle veneers tend to crack when attached at its core to make panel. In some cases the veneer conditioner application has reduced the crack problem significantly. The hard veneer may be difficult to be laminated perfectly. The veneer softener help to make the veneer to be soft and plastic. The soft veneer will make the better lamination and thus reduce to the veneer problem.

How to apply the veneer conditioner.

 
Apply the conditioner by brushed or sprayed on both side of the buckled veneer. Make sure it layers perfectly and wet the veneer evenly. The wet veneer will be soft and plastic; it can be pressed with straight board or plat to make it be straight. The veneer is held flat while it is dried, and the straight veneer is resulted after it is dry. It can be placed in the dehumidifier room or heated to faster the drying. Heating the veneer give an advantage since the heat makes the wood even more plastic.
The veneer conditioner is also helpful to reduce the problem of crack at the veneered panels. Wet the veneer with veneer conditioner before its being laminated. Spray or brush the conditioner to the veneer and then put the veneer at the dehumidifier room until it reaches the standard m.c. (about 8%-10%). Then glue and laminate the veneer to the core panels. The veneer conditioner help to plasticize and soft the veneer and then produce a better attachment. The result is better lamination and then reduce the problem at the veneered panel.

Saw mil

Saw mill is the facility where the first process in woodworking industry takes a place. In the saw mill the wood logs are cut to form panel boards. The panel boards then are dried to be used as a raw material in the woodworking industry. The chainsaw is the main tool to do the cutting process for the wood log. It is usually also equipped with equipment to help the wood transportation such as: rail, lift, and pallets. The big and modern saw mill industry can also equipped with the equipment to wood waste. A large saw mill can be equipped with complete facility for the processing to the wood waste. The wood chip and saw dust can be processed to make some other wood product such as: pulp, particle board, OSB or simply dried and used as fuel.
The wet wood boards are taken to the wood drying process. The thin wooden boards will dry in much shorter time than the wood in the form of logs. A thin wooden board has much larger surface area much larger than the logs to make the water evaporation can be done much faster. The sizes of the boards are usually made according with the standard sizes in the woodworking industry. But the special sizes can also be made if necessary.

Some of saw mill also available do the further processing such as: wood drying, anti-insect treatment, and grading the wood board. 

 traditional saw mill

Portable saw mill.

The current technology has made enable to run a portable saw mill. It is the mobile saw mill to serve the timber cutting to make the wood board near the forest or wood plantation. The portable saw mill can also be equipped with a complete facility for cutting the timber and manage the wood waste. Portable saw mill help for people who want to make wood panel boards without having problem with the transportation.

portable saw mill 

picture is from: http://www.sawmill-exchange.com/

Mirror.

Mirror as is glass that serves to reflect light that goes to him. Mirror as furniture product is used to help people for personal grooming. It is including the household that always needed in a room or houses. It is main function, is to help people to see himself at the time of dressing up. But then as well as other furniture, it also serves to decorate the room. At the time mirror then is made in various shapes, color and model.
The mirror becomes one of the essential elements part in furniture set in a collection. Mirror can be made with special frame to be hung in the wall or place in special hold. The mirror frame and the mirror hold are designed to be accord with the other furniture in one collection.

As household product, mirror is an object that is relatively rarely be touched or handled. Mirror has a glass that makes people always carefully in the handling.  Then the mirror may be made with very complex shape and be finished with maximum beauty with less risk to become damaged due to the usage. The mirror can be made in many shape and models: square, oval, circle or with variety ornaments. It also can be finished in many models such as: antique, classic, rustic, millennium, contemporary, etc.  as the finish and model for furniture.

Generally the model of the mirror is according to the model of the furniture in the room. But as the product that is mounted at the wall, it also can be in a special form, different with the furniture as long as accord to the room decoration theme.
Since it is relatively rare to be touched, then the mirror can be finished in a special looked to maximize its beauty.  High gloss finish with gold or silver can be applied to the mirror without any risk of damage caused by the usages. The finishing material for the mirror is the same with the finishing material for the furniture. The transparent finish or the opaque finish with many color and model are much used to accord with the furniture finish. The gilt finish is also can be applied to the mirror to give the expensive looked.

Finishing for the wood veneered panel.

Finishing is the last step in a series of processes to make product from wood (veneer). The process of finishing to the veneer panels is very similar to the finishing process for solid wood panels. The stain and coating used and the finishing looked for the veneer panel are very much the same with the finishing for the solid wood panel. But however, the wood veneer and solid wood are different material, so there may be some differences properties between both of them that have to be considered in the finishing process 

• The finishing color.

Although the wood veneered panel can be finished in any color, but the transparent color finish is the most proper color. The panel is layered with wood veneer since we want to get the wood looked and the wood characters at the panel, then the finish should also enhance the beauty of the wood looked of the veneer. The transparent finish is absolutely needed when the special exotic veneer is used and when the veneer is arranged in the special form and pattern. For the panel with special inlay veneer then even the dark stain should be avoid since it may block and kill the special effect of the veneer setting. A transparent finish with light stain or without stain application and the good quality clear coat is the most recommended finish for the inlay veneer.  

finishing for inlay veneer 

The solid color or opaque color will totally kill the beauty and the special looked for the veneer. If the light paint is used to make a semi-transparent paint then we may still be able to see the pattern of grain and pores of the wood. It still can be used to finish for some veneered panel. But if the full closed solid color finish is needed, then we better use m.d.f. or particle board as the substrates. The m.d.f. and particle surface which has no pores and grain can be easier finished to make solid color.

• Porosity.

Wood veneer panel only has a thin layer of wood on the surface. Therefore, he tends to have bigger porosity and absorb more finishing material compared with the solid wood panel. If we finish the wood veneer and solid in combination in one step finishing, then me may need to be treat differently to the veneer part. Avoid too wet spray at the veneer part. If the glaze application is used, then we may need to apply the inert glaze or glaze base to the veneer part before apply the glaze overall the surface. It will help to make better color blend between the veneer part and the solid wood.

The wood veneer is sometime has different color base, pore and pattern with the solid wood. The veneer usually is made from the older and more straight trees. The veneer tends to have bigger and deeper pore and grain. If the close pores finish is needed, then we may need to apply the filler to fill the wood veneer pores and grain.

• The sanding process.

The sanding for the wood veneered panel is about the same with the sanding process for wood panel from solid wood. The sanding must be done gradually with the coarse sandpaper followed by the fines sandpaper. First time sanding we can use the 150 to clean the tape, glue or stain at the veneered surface. The sanding with #180 is needed to remove the sanding mark from the #150 sandpaper. The final sanding with #240 grade sandpaper is needed to prepare the smooth surface for the finishing process. But the sanding must be done carefully, Wood veneer usually has only thin layer then it has high risk to get sanded trough by too aggressive sanding. The sanding by hand must be done with the stroke direction along to the grain pattern. A hand block can be used to help the sanding the flat veneer. The sanding machines also can be used to do the sanding process, but must be done carefully.
If the veneer has special arrangement, the sanding will be more complicated. The sanding machine is absolutely needed to sand the special inlay veneer. The wide belt sander or stroke sander is very good machine to handle this job. If the big machine is not available, then the hand sander machine can be used to take care the wood veneered panel

If the finishing process requires physical distress, then we need to consider the thickness of the veneer layer. Some of physical distress such as: nails, rocking or chaining can be performed without any problems, but the distress with deep wounds cannot be held. The gouges distress with chisel, or sanded trough distress can peel of the veneer layer form the damage to the veneer. For the big and deep distress we better uses the veneer with thick layer or solid wood panel.

How to make wood veneer panels.

The wood veneered panel is more used to replace the solid wood panel. The veneer that is layered to the particle board or m.d.f., will produce panel with wood looked that has very similar looked with the solid wood panel. With the proper processing the wood veneered panel gives some advantages compared with the solid wood panel. It is more stable, uniform in color, can be arranged with varied pattern and less expensive in price. The engineered wood product such as:  m.d.f., or particle board are homogenous and more stable since they are engineered product with some specific standard properties. Even the bare core, plywood and laminated wood are also have less risk to get warping or cracking problem since they are made from many pieces wood that is glued together. The tension of the wood pieces are eliminated each other result for more stable and stronger wood panel. Since that reason, then many woodworking industries prefer to use wood veneer than the solid wood panel. 

The process of making wood veneer actually is a simple process, but each process must be done in the right way. It is included the preparation of core panel, the veneer cutting and setting, the gluing process and the sanding of the veneer.

 wood veneered panel for furniture

Preparation of the core panel.
 
Core is a board where the veneer is going to be attached. The engineered wood products are used as the core; m.d.f., particle board, bare core, plywood or laminated wood. Each of them has their advantages and disadvantages but it won’t be discussed in here. Yoy can go see my previous article : (m.d.f.,  particle board, laminated wood, plywood).
No matter what is the type of core used, they need to be well prepared. First the core must be cut with the correct size and shape, according to the size and shape of the panel will be made. Then it needs to be properly sanded to make a flat and even surface core panel.

The flat panel usually is glued by the hot press machine. It is a press machine which is equipped with the heater to heat the glue to fasten the glue curing process. To produce strong bonds we need a core board with a flat and even surface. The uneven surface or panel which varied thickness could make the uneven pressure and uneven temperature in the panel and make the gluing is not well done.  The core surface must be cleaned form any dirt, and texture that may affect the gluing. The wide belt sanding is the best tool to sanding and calibrating the core panel to make the flat and even panel.  

For a curved panel, then the gluing is done with the vacuum press. It used vacuum to attract the veneer to keep stack with the core during the glue setting. It also need the clean and fairly smooth surface.  

The cutting and unification of the wood veneer.
 
Veneer is usually attached to make a wood looked with certain patterns. First the veneer is cut into the certain sizes and shapes according to the design. Wood veneer pieces are then put together to produce unified veneer with the desired pattern. To produce the tidy veneer, then each piece must be connected tightly. The right, neat and precision cutting is needed. A special machine called as guillotine knives is purposed to cut the veneers. The guillotine has a sharp knife with high pressure can cut the veneer with very sharp edges precisely, but it is limited to be used for the straight cutting. The laser knife is a modern tool to cut the veneer to make special shape and pattern. For small volume work, then a cutter which has sharp, and thin knife can also be used with very good results if it is carefully conducted with the skillful people.
The next process is the unification of the veneer pieces before glued to the core panels. The unification should be done precisely to make a tidy and tight connection for each piece. To form a simple and straight pattern veneer, then there is a veneer joint er machine. It can glue and connect the veneer edges automatically with very tight joint, but it only work for the straight connection. For the complex form then we need to join each pieces and then keep it with veneer tape or a thread. The manual hand work is needed in the jointing the veneer to make special pattern. 

Gluing veneer to the core.
 
Once the pieces of veneer are unified together forming the desired pattern then he can be placed and glued on its core. The glue used should be strong enough to produce a strong panel board. The chemical reaction is widely used. It forms the thermosetting bond which is strong, durable, high resistant to thinner and finishing materials that will be layered on
usually some ply of wood veneer is used to make a veneered  panel. The C or D grade veneer is used as the first layer that attached directly to the core. The on the veneer layer is attached the good performance veneer as the panel face.  The first and second layer veneer usually is set in a cross banding. The first veneer is layered with the cross direction grain while the top veneer is set with the grain direction according to the face panel designed. 

The cross banding will give you more strength to the wood veneer bonding. The special arrangement in the cross banding can be used to address some specific veneer problems. The crack problem in the crotch mahogany veneer can be minimized by set the cross banding veneer in the 60 angle with the core and face veneer.

For flat panel then the attachment is usually done with  by hot press machine. Hot press machine can heat the veneer layer with temperatures up to 100 C, thus the glue hardening process can quickly done; the glue dry in about 2-3 minutes. But the heating plate is flat; restricting the uses of the machine to board the flat panel only. To form the curved panel, then the vacuum press is needed. It used the vacuum force to suck to keep the veneer attached to the core until the glue is dry.  

Veneer sanding.
 
Veneer that has been attached will have rough and dirty surface. The tape at the veneer surface, the glue that sticks and stains that are stick at the surface must be cleaned to perform a smooth and even panel. The tapes can be cleaned by remove then with water or mineral spirit, but then it still need sanding process to make a smooth and even surface. The sanding with proper way can eliminate the tape, glue and stain at the veneer surface.  The veneer sanding can be done with # 150 or 120 grade sandpaper to clean the glue, tape and stain mark. Then the sanding with # 180 grade sandpaper is usually enough for last sanding to provide the clean and smooth unfinished surface for finishing.  Some type of veneer may need the # 240 as the last unfinished sanding before stain application.

How to make veneer.

Veneer (wood veneer) is a thin sheet of wood. It is much used to layer the m.d.f., particle board to produce wood looked surface. The veneer industry is big scale in the woodworking industry. The wood veneers from any type of wood are available in the market to supply the woodworking industry. If you need a wood veneer then you can find supplier and order according to your need. But do you know how wood veneer is made? In this article we want to share about the process to make veneer.
Veneer is made from the wood, so the manufacture of veneer is started by cutting the tree. All types of tree can be used to make wood veneer, but usually the wood with nice looked are used. The nice exotic and expensive wood such as: ebony, rosewood, pavero, zebrano, etc. are used to make veneered panel with special wood looked. While the common wood such as: oak, pine, cherry, maples are also much used to make veneer. If the exotic woods are used to make special inlay in the wood looked panel, the common wood veneer are used to make the better wood looked panels. The wood veneer with high grade can be obtained with cheaper than the wood plank panels.

The trees that are used to make veneer should be long enough, has a straight trunk and quite big in the diameter. The timber for veneer usually is better quality than the trees used to make the wood panel. The timber log usually is hard and brittle; it should be soaked or boiled first before being sliced. Soaking the wood will make the wood to be soft, elastic and reduce the problem in the slicing process. The tough and brittle wood may need to be boiled to get soften.

The wood stem is peeled by a rotary knife to clean off the skin and sap wood to make the long wood trunk with same size diameter from one end to the end. This log then is going to be sliced to form veneer. There are various techniques of slicing:  rotary slicing, flat cut slicing, half cut slicing, quarter cut slicing and rift cut slicing . Each of cutting technique will give different types of veneer and give the difference appearance in the term of grain pattern. The veneer slicing can be viewed below.

 

rotary slicing

 

half round slicing

 

quarter cut slicing

 

rift cut slicing

 flat cut slicing

The thin sheets of wood are still wet and mixed in the quality, then are need to be selected and dried in a kiln dry. Veneer is thin sheet; therefore he can dry quite fast. It needs few days to let the veneer dry. The veneer is usually marketed with the moisture content about 10 %.

The next process is grading and separating the veneers according to its quality. There are several grade of veneer according to its quality. By length, the veneer is grouped into three: the architectural grade, furniture grade and flooring grade. Architectural grade, this is the longest veneer, up to 2.2 m - 3.4 meter length. It is used to layer the specific forms of the building or home to make special architectural model. The furniture grade is the veneer for the furniture industry. Its size is according to make panels for furniture such as: side panels, top panels for cabinet or table. Some special furniture model that needs the longer veneer will need the architectural grade veneer. The flooring grade is the shortest veneer with 1 meter length. It used to make engineered flooring parquet, which is usually need the short panel.

The veneer is also graded according to its defect as the wood panel. Veneer with a grade is the best quality; it is the veneer with clean surface free from the eye, hole, crack and other defects.  The B grade is the veneer with some defect or knot, if more defects are existed then the veneer is grouped in the C or D grade.

The architectural A grade veneer is the most expensive, it means the veneer has clean and good surface for 3 meter length. It is the sheet that first explored and separated from the bulk of the sliced wood. The good performance sheet with some defect can be cut to go to the furniture grade or flooring grade. The low performance veneer can also go to the b grade or c grade. The A or B grade are used to make the face panel, while the C or D grade can be used to layer the back panel or to be used as the banded core. 
 

Veneer storage.
 
As product from wood, the veneer is hygroscopic material that is susceptible to the changes of the air humidity. The changes in the environmental humidity will caused to the shrinkage or swelling that could damage the veneer. Therefore, the veneer should be stored in a conditioning room which has a stable humidity. In the room the veneer sheet with same quality, sizes and type are bundled and stored in the same place. .

Laminated wood.

Laminated wood is a big size wood block or panel made from many wood pieces that are glued and unified together. Laminated wood then is used to make various products in the woodworking industry. Panel boards, table, chair for furniture, pile, frame, door or window in the wood house most are made form laminated wood. The uses of intact solid wood boards for the width and length wood product is very rare today. Wood pieces with big size are very difficult to be obtained, if any then the price will be very expensive.
Wood gluing technologies has very advanced. It makes the laminated wood has many advantages compared with the intact wood. With proper processing, the laminated wood is stronger, more stable then the solid intact wood and has cheaper price and faster processing time.

laminated wood board 

The process of making the laminated wood includes several processes: wood drying, cutting, gluing and resurfacing

• Drying the wood pieces.

The wood from fresh trees usually is wet, so he must be dried to fulfill the m.c. requirement for the woodworking industry. To speed up the drying process, the logs should be cut into planks which have thinner size. Then the thin size planks are dried in the oven, or let it dries naturally in the open air. The drying process for timber that are going to be used to the furniture or architectural products must be controlled in order to keep the wood in the good performance. The drying that is too fast can damage the wood performance by giving some crack, splitting, honeycomb, warping or color changes to the the wood. While too long time drying can lead to the fungus or insects attacked that also will ruin the wood performance. The proper drying is the first step to make the timber with good quality.

• Cutting and gluing pieces wood to make laminated wood.

The dried wood board then are used to feed the machining process to be cut, shaped and formed in the woodworking industry. If the wood with a larger size is needed, then some pieces wood can be glued together to make the laminated wood. To get good laminated wood panel, the we need a proper laminating process. The proper gluing process involves the glue selection and the gluing process. The glue used should be strong enough to let the laminated wood to fulfill the product requirement. For the outdoor uses, then the glue must be waterproof and resist to the outdoor weather. The PU, epoxy glue or urea which are two components that give thermosetting bonding are the good choices. While for indoor furniture and architectural products that require good color, the p.v.a.c. glue or urea can be used. It does not to be water resist, but it needs light color to help the finishing looked and color. For construction products in the interior of the house or building that does not good color match, the stronger and fast drying glue can be used.

The glue is applied by coated to the wood surfaces before the wood pieces are unified and pressed to let the glue dry and making a strong bonding. Each type of glue has different specification and may need different process. To get the maximum bonding, then the proper process must be followed. How thick the glue is layered, how long is the glue drying and how much pressure is needed must be followed to obtain the good bonding.

• Resurface the laminated wood

The laminated wood always give an uneven surfaces, then to get an even and smooth surface, it need to be resurfaced. To make flat panel, the laminated wood can be planed and sanded. The laminated wood panel can also go the machining to be shaped and formed as component. Then the sanding is needed to smooth and even the wood out from the plainer or machinery. The wood (or laminated wood) pieces with proper size and smooth surface can be brought to be assembled to make the wood product.

•   Finishing for the laminated wood.

Laminated wood that keep naked (unfinished) tend to suffer the consequences from the environment changes. The humidity and temperature changes could make problem as the dimensions changes in the laminated board. Each of wood pieces may have variation of: porosity, grain direction, pores and the each pieces may act differently according to the humidity changes. It gives risk to get the dimensional changes of wood such as: uneven surface, delamination, crack, splitting, etc. To minimize this problem, then the laminated wood should be immediately coated with finishing materials. The coating that is layered on both sides wood board will close the pore and grain of the wood to make the wood more stable and less risk to the dimensional changes problem. If the unfinished wood product is needed, then wood conditioner can be used to keep the moisture wood content keep stable, thereby reducing the risk of problems resulting from the movement of the wood..

How to spray stain to the wood furniture.

Most of stain application for wood furniture today is done by spray. With the proper spray technique, we can layer the stain to color the wood surface according to the wood condition to get the finish color we want. The problem of the wood variation in color can easily be handled by spray application. The spraying process is also much faster then the wiping and brushing. However the proper spraying application is needed to produce the good coloring result. There are several point must be considered to get the proper spray stain to meet the good finishing result. They are: the unfinished preparation, the equipment preparation and selection, the stain preparation and the spray stain execution. 

•  Preparation to the unfinished wood.

The most important wood preparation is the wood sanding. The wood sanding must be done correctly to produce a good performance finishing. The white wood sanding must be started with the coarse sandpaper and gradually followed with the finer grade. The final sanding for finishing preparation should be ended with the # 240 or # 180 sandpaper. For more explanation you can read our previous article : How to sand the unfinished wood  .And to help the check the wood sanding you can go to our article: How to inspect the unfinished  wood furniture 

•  Preparation of the spray gun.

The proper spray gun is needed to produce a good layer stain. Check and clean the spray gun that is going to be used to spray your stain, make sure it works well, do testing with paint thinner and see the results. For wood stain application, the air spray gun is the best choice. It can produce the best atomization. It is also very flexible for adjustment and setting, with fully control by the operator. The HVLP or LVLP spray gun are also can be used, although they are not as flexible as the air spray, but they can produce good atomization and quite well adjustable. The airless spray gun or air mixed spray gun is not proper for stain application since its limitation in control and setting. But most of all, the spray gun must be in the good condition to get the good staining result. You can view more about spray gun in our previous article: The spray gun for wood furniture finishing

• Preparation of the stain.

To get the correct coloring, then we need the proper stain. Wood stain is a thin solution which is rarely damaged, but of course we have to check it to ensure that the stain is in the good condition before being used. Stir and agitated the stain to let the pigments perfectly mixed. Check the physical performance of the stain, it must be well mixed without any sediment or dirt inside. We may need to filter the stain to clean from the dirt or slurry.  

Check the stain color; make sure we got the correct color. The stain may be changed in color due to its solvent evaporation. The stain with low quality may even get color changes because of chemical reactions or pigment degradation. The stain colors can be checked by pouring it in the pour down on the card, wood panel or wood veneer. See our previous article: How to check the stain color

• The spray stains technique.

The stain is needed to be applied properly to produce the correct color finishing. We should coat the stain with proper thickness to the wood surface for the right coloration.  The wood may have varied base color; then we may need to layer the stain differently for each part to get the even finish color. Use the sap stain and equalizer to equate the wood base color before apply the overall body stain. See our previous article: how to match color in the wood furniture finishing

After an even wood base color is obtained then we need to view the overall basic color of the wood, and make sure that we use the right stain color to produce final color finishing what we want. We can use the color wheel diagram to determine the color of the body stain we need.
There are three techniques spray; dry spray, medium wet spray and wet spray. Wet spray technique is the most recommended because it produces the best surface wetting. Wet spray also gives the highest efficiency in material transferring. However, in some cases, the medium wet or dry spray is needed. Dry spray is needed for the application of equalizer stain and sap stain to handle the variation of the wood base color. While the medium wet spray is needed for stain application to the soft woods like pine, maple, sengon, etc. to minimize the risk of blotchy color when stain is applied too wet.
Spray stain with the correct technique; make sure the stain coat the surface with a uniform staining to the overall surface. Start to spray stain on the bottom or the inside part or other invisible part, then do the spray on the visible part. The main part furniture as top panel or the front should be sprayed at the last time. To see more about spraying technique, you can go to our previous article: How to use the spray gun  and how to set the spray gun
Do some experiments on some pieces of wood panel to make sure we apply the stain correctly before making application for the big furniture product.
Check the stain layer after the application. Make sure the stain layers the wood surface evenly with the proper color. Make correction if the color is uneven, too light or too dark. We can also make correction or revision in this step if there is any problem on the wood surface such: glue spot, scratches, dents, gap, etc. The stain layer that has not been covered with clear coat still can be cleaned easily. We can darken the light stain by re spray the stain, or lighten the stain little bit by rub with steel wool. We can also easily remove the stain layer by wash it off with thinner or sanded with sandpaper. 

The stain application is the first finishing process that will form and built the base finishing color. It is very important to do the proper wood staining to get the even stain layer with the right color. Then we can continue the finishing process by another finishing operation, the sealer, glaze and top coat application.